Ulrich Seidl’s Paradise: Faith (2012), the second film in the Paradise trilogy, could be seen as a complement to its predecessor Paradise:Love (2012). While in Love, Klara (Margarethe Tiesel) tries to overcome a spiritual crisis through sex, here Anna Maria (Maria Hofstätter, in an intensely physical performance that rivals Tiesel’s brilliant portrayal) supplants physicality with Faith. What the previous film did with love, Faith does with religious belief, charting one person’s attempt to find Faith in a world that increasingly thwarts it. More precisely, the film refracts this quest through an Existentialist prism, producing a portrait of the search for meaning through Catholic values in a world where they have been rendered invalid. Like Klara, Anna Maria discovers that Faith, which is considered a private commitment, is invariably shaped by the social and political systems they are practiced within. Seidl’s film subtly plays with our judgment of the central character and dodges any easy association of her character with her belief system. The contradiction between her catholic principles and her demeanour with her estranged Muslim husband (Nabil Saleh) is less an indication of the fickleness of her Faith than a demonstration of the difficulties of having Faith in our times. The film has been characterized as a comedy in some critical quarters and that very classification speaks volumes about our Enlightened epoch, in which irrational faith can’t be anything but a fodder for laughter. Seidl’s clinical detachment – typified by his head-on compositions where characters come across as subjects in a behavioural study – from Anna Maria’s rituals is genuine neutrality rather than condescending irony. For an unprejudiced eye, all her actions – be it the self-flagellating routine or her insistence that non-Catholics are leading a sinful life – would appear as gestures as valid, understandable and worthy of empathy as Klara’s attempts at finding love.

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3 Responses to “Ellipsis #74”

Finally your new post. I have been visiting your page nearly everyday waiting for your new post. Your criticisms have inspired me a lot and i find your quality of film criticism one of the best in the country. You pay as much attention to a film’s form as to its content and that adds a lot of value to your writings. Your insightful writings on Films on Mani Kaul especially has left a lasting impact on me and has served as a solid starting ground for my own papers on Kaul. This review is also well written. I love the way you pointed out how the reception of this film as a comedy is actually vital to the film’s essence. Keep your writings coming.

P.S. – It’d be great if you could also tell us few options for viewing the film, its availability in different formats or platforms. Thanks.

Most of the films I write about do not have a commercial release in our country, as you might be aware. I get to see most of these films thanks to torrents. A small fraction is through DVDs, the odd local screenings and film festivals.